Etwinning

Travelling creativity in 'Art on the Move'

Title: Art on the move

Education stage: Infant and Primary

Subject: Interdisciplinary

Art as a tool to learn about other European cultures, bond as friends and become familiar with the symbols and values of European identity. This was the main idea that encouraged pupils and teachers from five schools in Spain, Finland, the United Kingdom, Poland and Bulgaria to embark on an adventure that would last almost two years.

The friendship also became stronger thanks to the meetings held between pupils during the stay, given that the project is a good example of integration between eTwinning and a Comenius association. In this case, eTwinning boosted the number of digital experiences in the classroom, also promoting interaction and collaboration between partners. Furthermore, eTwinning provided the digital tools required to help pupils - who are always guided by their devoted and attentive teachers - to go on cultural trips to all partner countries through artistic expression.

For two years, on the way towards the knowledge of European identity, several topics were dealt with in a creative and different way, such as regional festivities and celebrations, the importance of family in the societies of partner countries, feelings, interpersonal relationships, European celebrations, the most famous monuments in each country, literature and books, music and dance, celebrities in partner countries (artists, politicians ...), etc.

The cultural trips that pupils in “Art on the move” went on cover almost all forms of artistic expression: they make drawings, paintings, sculptures, plays, folk dancing, photos, mini-films, literary works, etc. The result of the project is a huge amount of artistic material, which can be reused in class and is stored in a perfectly organised and user-friendly wiki, an ICT tool that is popular for being so collaborative.

Teachers Cristina Grau and Jessica Juárez were in charge of coordinating “Art on the move”. The detailed study plan and the timing of the activities reflect good coordination levels and a careful distribution of the tasks and roles assigned to each participant. The outstanding planning is reflected in the great quality of the resulting materials, which together represent a real cultural and artistic guide of the participating countries.

The artistic adventure of both pupils and teachers in “Art on the move" is divided into two different stages: firstly, it attempts to bring pupils closer to their partners' culture, and then it tries to awaken their interest for collaborative work, designing activities that would promote interaction and collaboration between partners. All of this is based on the use of English, which is the lingua franca used by these children to get closer to one another and understand the diversity of European culture. As Cristina Grau said: "we make friends by teaching, learning and respecting the traditions, customs and features of each country, using a common code and channel: English through ICTs."

The success of this project proves that pupils' early age is not an obstacle towards collaborative work. Quite the opposite, these Infant and Primary pupils have shown their liking for team activities, as well as a great interest in new technologies. Within this collaborative scenario, we must mention the partners' idea of becoming teachers and recording videotutorials to show their European partners a typical dance. Here is the Spanish version of the dance suggested by the Finnish pupils and teachers:

Likewise, pupils let their imagination fly and, with help from their partners, they created several collaborative stories in English, making clear that creativity and learning a foreign language are closely connected. The new stories were then illustrated with lovely drawings that reflect these pupils' talent, originality and fantasy. With great ease, they have shared with their partners something about cultural diversity, briging them closer and promoting a feeling of belonging to the common European cultural space.